… A lonely world
Twenty-five hundred years ago, Aristotle noticed that man was a “social” animal. He would have thought about what he knew about Greek civilization – and even the older Egyptian one – to come to that conclusion. And we know, from the lifestyles of his chimpanzee cousins, that his ancestors Hominini (including Australopithecus) even before becoming a “man”, were TRIBAL. And nothing since then has changed the truth of that statement. After all, why should ?? Social living created a “culture”, which made us survive in new environments even better than in our natural evolutionary DNA inheritance. Until maybe now, with COVID-19.
From what we are witnessing, being “social” in this pandemic would INCREASE our chances of being killed, rather than help us survive! Think about it: every time we come into contact with another human being, we increase exponentially or have a chance of being infected with the virus !! What this means is that sociability as we know it – collecting and “feeling and touching” – is no longer an evolutionary benefit, but vice versa!
Now, you may be saying that your Eyewitness has become a real “Chicken Little”. You know, running around … crying, “The sky is falling !! The sky is falling! ”And whipping you bad readers into mass hysteria! But listen, there’s no guarantee that this COVID-19 virus will disappear any time soon – if at all. As he has been saying, we know for a fact that the common cold – caused by a virus – has become “common” because it is caused by a virus that doesn’t go away alone. Because it’s more of a nuisance than anything else, we don’t care about it.
But then there’s the flu (or flu). This is also caused by a virus, but can cause deaths in enough cases in the elderly to cause concern. As such, vaccines have been made to fight it, but those vaccines have to be modified annually due to the flu virus mutant variants. And we come to COVID- 19, which causes more deaths than influenza to waaaay, for which we now have half a dozen vaccines. Even if those are working, we know that they will be temporary, as they are not necessarily going to be effective against the inevitable fluctuations that will emerge a year on year. For example, the AstraZeneca vaccine has been shown to be ineffective against variation in South Africa, and South Africa had to send their 1m doses back to India.
So where does this leave our species as a “social” animal? In fact, even after we have been vaccinated, we will still have to cut back on our personal interactions, and limit them to other people who are vetted as certified as not is carrying new variants of COVID-19.
It’s a new world, baby!

… New patterns of socialization
So does this mean that we will become a world of herbivores that accompany lone fires to make sure we don’t pick up COVID-19 viruses? Not really. But you never know if you’re in Guyana, where infection rates and, more relevantly, deaths are skyrocketing, people are partying. Your Eyewitness has seen the future and – to a large extent – is very virtual!
Take having to go to work in offices. This would be reduced so much that it would be an exception rather than the rule. Our technology has already given us the ability to work out of our homes – and this technology is steadily improving. And 5-G is not even here yet! Zoom is just one platform, and we can anticipate that this would be improved so much that we will soon be able to interact with others in 3-D.
And it won’t be limited to office-to-home communication! Can you see anyone walking without a phone glued to their ears in any metropolitan city street?
That’s the new socialization!

… A new world order
The developed world retained the old Imperial argument that they look out for us poor natives because we are all one family.
But COVID-19 has revealed the truth, that it’s really “us against them”!

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